Overview

CrashPlan for Small Business's default backup settings are based on real-life data management experience in a wide variety of environments, and they serve as a solid foundation when setting the backup policies for your users. However, every business has unique circumstances that may require customized settings for their CrashPlan for Small Business environment. This article provides considerations for defining what, how, and where data is backed up.

What to back up

CrashPlan for Small Business is designed for endpoint backup and works best when backing up user data. By default, CrashPlan for Small Business is set to back up the entire user home directory, which is where most users keep their files. In most cases, we recommend using the default file selection. However, in some situations, you may want to add or remove files from the default selection.

Add files to the default file selection

You may want to add directories to the default file selection if user data often lives outside the user home folder.

Exclude files from your file selection

Excluding files from backup increases the risk of missing something that may be important. However, some situations may warrant excluding certain file types or directories:

Directories that don't typically house business data (e.g., C:\Personal)

Media

If you have limited storage or certain compliance requirements, you may want to exclude media. You can exclude:

Certain directories such as the system's default Music or Video folders

Specific media file types

If you have high storage capacity, we recommend including media. If you have concerns about bandwidth consumption, we recommend you address bandwidth concerns more directly, while still protecting those types of files.

System files

We strongly recommend excluding system and application files from backup, as backing up these types of files could prevent user-created data from backing up efficiently. These types of files are excluded under the default backup file selection.

CrashPlan for Small Business prioritizes its to-do list based on file size and creation date: small, frequently-changing files such as system files are backed up before other files in the backup selection. This can prevent backup from fully completing, or significantly increasing the time required for backup completion.

Databases and virtual machines

Backing up files that are constantly being written to, such as application databases and virtual machines, requires special consideration. For best practices regarding backing up these types of files, see Back up open files and databases.

How to back up

CrashPlan for Small Business is very flexible, allowing you to configure backup settings to work best with your network, compliance requirements, and users' usage patterns.

Performance

The Code42 app is designed to operate in the background so that backup is invisible to your users and system resources are optimized for user needs:

The Code42 app runs at lowest system priority.

Default settings further restrict the percentage of CPU that the Code42 app is allowed to use. There are separate CPU settings based on whether the user is active (using the keyboard or mouse) or away.

On laptop computers, the Code42 app is configured by default to stop backing up when the laptop's battery reaches 20% or less. The Code42 app won't use up battery life when users need it the most.

Performance testing
When doing performance testing, we strongly recommend increasing allowed CPU to 100% when both present and away to remove restrictions placed upon the Code42 app's performance.

Bandwidth

There are several ways that CrashPlan for Small Business can back up while not saturating your network. If you have significant bandwidth constraints, we recommend updating settings in the listed order, until you've found the optimal configuration for your users and your network.

Restrict the time of day where CrashPlan for Small Business is allowed to run.

Users are not continuously protected.

Network restrictions

You can control which network interfaces or Wi-Fi networks CrashPlan for Small Business is allowed to use for backup. Restricting Wi-Fi networks or network interfaces is a great way to avoid mobile data overage charges if your users connect their computers to mobile data networks and have limited data plans.

For hot spots, exclude Wi-Fi networks by name.

For USB modems, exclude the network interface.

You can also use Wi-Fi network restrictions to prevent users from backing up while connected to networks with limited bandwidth.

Frequency, versions, and deleted files

By default, CrashPlan for Small Business provides continuous data protection for unlimited file versions and unlimited retention of deleted files. We recommend using the default frequency and version retention settings. However, there are some cases where the defaults may not be appropriate for your organization or for a subset of your users:

Where to back up

CrashPlan for Small Business provides the ability to back up to multiple destinations. For best protection, we recommend backing up to more than one destination. A common scenario is to back up to one on-site destination for faster backups and restores, and one off-site destination for disaster recovery: